Soundgarden Makes Billboard Debut

Soundgarden's first album in 16 years, King Animal, debuted at Number Five on the Billboard album chart last Wednesday (November 21st), selling 83,000 copies in its first week of release. The CD arrived in stores on November 13th and followed up the band's 1996 album Down On The Upside, which debuted at Number Two. Soundgarden disbanded in 1997 after touring that record, reuniting in 2010 and releasing a live album and hits compilation before getting to work on King Animal.

Drummer Matt Cameron says it didn't take the members of Soundgarden long to get their chemistry back once they reunited: "I think we felt a little weird the first rehearsal before we played our first show, which was like April 2010. You know, some of those rehearsals were kind of headscratchers, like, 'Hmm, how's this song go, how's that song go?' you know. But once we played through, you know, one or two entire songs, then the chemistry came back as far as the way that we just naturally play together. And that's the thing I was most concerned with, is just, can we still do our thing together? Can we still make that sound together?"

Soundgarden will play an "intimate" club show at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles on Tuesday (November 27th). A winter North American tour kicks off on January 18th, 2013 in Washington DC.

Also debuting on the chart before Thanksgiving was Green Day's Dos!, which sold 69,000 copies to debut at Number Nine. The disc is the second of three new ones from the trio, with Uno! moving 139,000 copies to land at Number Two back in September. The third disc, Tre!, arrives on December 11th.

All of Green Day's promotional and touring plans have been on hold since frontman Billie Joe Armstrong checked into rehab in late September.

Finally, Deftones just missed the Top 10 with their seventh album, Koi No Yokan, which entered at Number 11 with sales of 65,000 copies. 2010's Diamond Eyes moved 62,000 copies to arrive at Number Six.